
    Draft 0.5B1 of a CAMEO scale

In response to numerous requests, we have constructed a draft of a scale
for CAMEO that is roughly equivalent to the Goldstein scale for the WEIS
event coding scheme. This link <CAMEO.SCALE.txt> will take you to a text
file formated so that it can be used in the /KEDS_Count/ [Java] program.


      How was this scale constructed?

Just like the original Goldstein scale?in an /ad hoc/ manner on a slow
afternoon with a deadline approaching. Well, a little more
systematically: I [Schrodt] started by matching up most of the codes for
which there were exact equivalents between WEIS and CAMEO, and then
filled in from there. Except that's not /exactly/ what I did, because in
a few places in the extreme ranges (codes with scale values with
magnitude greater than �7 or thereabouts) I adjusted some of the values
upwards or downward a bit to open up space for behaviors that CAMEO
differentiates but WEIS didn't.


      Sounds very arbitrary. Wouldn't it be better to do a large scale
      Web-based survey of a diverse, multi-national, multi-disciplinary
      set of experts?

The IDEA project tried that about five years ago, and the estimates
never converged. More generally, we have done a number of tests which
indicate that results are not sensitive to small variations in the
values of the scales, so investing a lot of effort in this is not a
priority.


      Are you likely to make incremental adjustments to this scale in
      the future?

Very likely, once we get some time to look at it more closely.


      But basically you don't like it, right? You don't like scaled
      event data in general, right?

Right.


        Last update: 23 March 2007

